Two giant pandas from China have arrived in the United States as part of an agreement between the Chinese and American governments, Zoo Atlanta confirmed Sunday.
The zoo said giant pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Sunday morning “via a dedicated Boeing 777 ‘FedEx Panda Express’ aircraft.”
“This is an exciting day for Zoo Atlanta and a historic moment for the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia and beyond,” Raymond B. King, zoo president and CEO, said in a statement on social media. “We are thrilled to welcome Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and couldn’t be more excited to share that joy with our members, guests, city and community in the weeks to come.”
FedEx via AP 
Zoo visitors will have to wait a while to see Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, officials said. They will be quarantined for about a month in a biosecure area of the wildlife park’s new giant panda complex. Park officials have not confirmed a specific opening date.
While I was in Washington for a three day summit with President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping announcement that the pandas would be loaned to Zoo Atlanta and would arrive in the coming days. They constitute one of the few concrete results of the state visit.
Xu Bingjie/Xinhua via AP 
Zoo Atlanta has been part of a giant panda agreement with China for more than 25 years. The zoo bid farewell to its last pandas in 2024, leaving the zoo without pandas. The new the deal was announced in April but without any date.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are the two adult pandas who will be loaned to Zoo Atlanta for 10 years as part of the agreement. The two pandas were born in 2020 and were kept at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. Ping Ping, the male, has black circles around his eyes, while Fu Shuang, the female, has a slightly protruding forehead, according to the Xinhua news agency.
China has long used pandas as part of its global diplomacy, deploying them in loan programs as an expression of goodwill and letting loan deals expire when tensions arise.
Xi had said the loan program was an example of “the friendship between the Chinese and Americans.”
Currently, two other zoos in the United States house pandas. The National Zoo and the San Diego Zoo both received pandas from China in 2024.
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